M A I N   N E W S

Alarmed CMs to approach Delhi on wheat MSP
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Jan 23 — Alarmed over reports that the government may not hike the minimum support price for wheat in the rabi season, the Chief Ministers of Punjab and Haryana are rushing to the Capital to impress upon the Centre to reconsider the proposed decision.

The Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal and his Haryana counterpart, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, are scheduled to meet the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, before he chairs a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

It is understood that the minimum support price for rabi crops is listed in the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting. Apart from the MSP for wheat, the CCEA is to decide on the procurement prices for barley, gram, rapeseed, mustard and sunflower.

As the largest producers of wheat, Punjab and Haryana have considerable stake in the MSP of wheat as it has political ramifications.

The Centre has been mulling a stop to the annual increase in the MSP ever since stocks started piling up in the Central pool and farmers resorted to selling their stocks to the government not as a last resort but as a preference customer.

Revoke officer’s suspension, Haryana told
By Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 23—In a setback to the Haryana Government, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has asked the state to revoke the suspension of a former Deputy Commissioner of Rohtak, Mr Anil Kumar, IAS, and to give him a suitable posting, keeping in view his seniority and experience.

The commission is a constitutional body exercising the powers of a civil court under Article 338 of the Constitution.

The commission has gone to the extent of “advising” the state government to withdraw criminal action against Mr Anil Kumar and to “stop his further harassment”.

Mr Anil Kumar was posted as DC of Rohtak and was the Returning Officer when the 1998 Lok Sabha elections were held in which the former Deputy Prime Minister of India, Mr Devi Lal, was the Lok Dal candidate. Mr Devi Lal lost the elections to the Haryana Congress president, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, by a narrow margin of 383 votes.

The Chautala government came to power on July 24, 1999. On December 31, 1999, the State Vigilance Bureau registered a criminal case against Mr Sri Krishan Dass, former Minister, and others, including Mr Anil Kumar, who were accused to committing certain irregularities in the preparation of estimates and the execution of road repair works.

In his representation sent to the commission on April 7, 2000, Mr Anil Kumar alleged that the main reason for including his name in the FIR and his harassment and suspension “is the personal grudge that the present Chief Minister (Mr Chautala) bears against me for my refusal to order the recounting of the votes of the Rohtak parliamentary constituency in 1998.”

He also informed the commission that immediately after the Chautala government took over, he was shifted to an unimportant post as Vice-Principal of the Revenue Training Institute, Ambala, and he was not allotted residential accommodation, despite houses being vacant. “under the instructions of the Chief Minister.”

The commission, which felt that it was a case of harassment and victimisation of a Scheduled Castes officer, sought parawise comments on the complaint of Mr Anil Kumar from the state government. The then Chief Secretary, Mr R.S. Varma, however, informed the commission on May 4, 2000, that a criminal case had been registered against Mr Anil Kumar and others and that after review by the competent authority it was decided to extend the period of his suspension till further orders.

When the commission summoned the Chief Secretary to appear before it on August 3, 2000, he submitted a brief note about the case and stated that the case did not fall within its purview.